




ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BY 

JULIEN T'. DAVIES 

»» 

RR I VATE IN COMPANY A, 22 N D REQT., N „ <3 . N.V., 1863 

AT THE 

MEMORIAL. SERVICE 

JAMES MONROE POST NO. QOT 

DEPARTMENT OP NEW YORK G. A. R. 


MAY 28, 1913 



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war department," 

SEP a i913 


CITIZEN SOLDIERSHIP. 


The services held tonight are in memory of 
members of the Twenty-second Regiment, National 
Guard of the State of New York, who, after active 
service in the War of the Rebellion, became mem¬ 
bers of the Grand Army of the Republic and of 
the James Monroe Post. 

The few of us who survive meet here with you 
who are connected with and interested in that 
regiment, in sorrow that our friends have passed 
away; in gladness that the opportunity was af¬ 
forded them to show the qualities of citizen sol¬ 
diership in the defence of their country. That we 
direct our attention to them as the principal sub¬ 
ject of our thoughts, does not involve any lack of 
appreciation of the worth and indispensable char¬ 
acter of the services of the professional soldier. 
Indeed, we may well pause a moment to yield to 
the man who devotes his life to the military 
service of his country, and who ever stands ready 
at a moment’s notice to take the field, fully 
equipped by study, by drill and by discipline, at 
the moment of active hostilities, a tribute which, 
we must regret to say, is not as freely given by 
our people as its subject deserves. 

The clergyman, in pursuance of his sacred call¬ 
ing, abandons ail ambitious hopes of worldly ad¬ 
vancement and the accumulation of wealth. His 
life, in the present day of the needs and expense 
of comfortable living, involves deprivation and 
even privation, not only to himself, but to those 





2 


who feel it even more keenly—his wife and daugh¬ 
ters. Is the case of the professional soldier in 
the United States Army any better? Compare 
the compensation not only of the privates but of 
the officers of our army with the incomes enjoyed 
by those holding equally responsible positions in 
other departments of human labor, and we find 
that the rewards of the soldier approach far more 
nearly those of the clergyman than those of any 
other class of the community. All honor, then, to 
him who stands as the ever-ready guardian of our 
national honor and our domestic peace, who turns 
his back upon the allurements and emoluments 
of business and professional life, and who for him¬ 
self and his family accepts the sacrifices and the 
inadequate pecuniary rewards of the professional 
soldier. 

But today our minds are principally upon those 
who, while pursuing the ordinary avocations of 
our great City, nevertheless, at the call of their 
country in time of need, left their homes, their 
families and their labor, and willingly exposed 
their health and their lives to stem the tide of 
invasion. 

It is but natural, in considering a subject gen¬ 
erally, to be most impressed and to speak more 
freely from one’s personal experience. The Twenty- 
second Regiment, when it went to the front in 
June, 1863, summoned in haste to do its part in 
resisting the invasion of Pennsylvania, was com¬ 
posed of men who had been accustomed to com¬ 
fortable methods of living. There was probably 
not a man in the regiment who before that cam¬ 
paign had ever known what it was to be hungry 
and to be absolutely unable to get something to 
eat, to be wet to the skin, and to be unable to 
obtain fire and a change of clothes, and to be 


3 


WAR DEPARTMENT, 

u.r ** 1913 

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obliged to sleep night after night on the bare 
ground without shelter. 

Without the slightest suggestion that such serv¬ 
ices are to be compared in point of value or merit 
with those of the men who for four years endured 
these privations, it is at least something that may 
be said tonight, that the men of the Twenty- 
second Regiment endured such conditions during 
this campaign willingly and cheerfully and in a 
spirit of buoyant enjoyment that can only be ex¬ 
plained by the fact, that the regiment was ani¬ 
mated by the true soldierly spirit of being willing 
to suffer for the sake of a cause without consid¬ 
eration of the extent of the sacrifice. We are justi¬ 
fied in saying of those men, not only with respect 
to this campaign, but also with respect to the 
Harper’s Ferry campaign of 1862, which endured 
for more than three months, that the Twenty- 
second Regiment in the time of need gave all that 
was asked of it, and did all that was required 
of it. 

In the Summer of 1863 the campaign was made 
without tents, carrying with us nothing in the way 
of extra clothing but overcoats and rubber blankets. 
We had access to our knapsacks for a change of 
clothing but four times during the campaign, and 
then only for an hour or two at a time, and the 
regiment drew six days’ rations during the thirty 
days of active service. What else we had to eat, 
we bought, begged, borrowed or stole; and I trust 
I am not reflecting upon the honor of the regi¬ 
ment when I admit, that the pangs of hunger im¬ 
pelled us to use any of these means that sufficed 
to satisfy and fill the aching void within. 

Let me make a personal confession, which I 
would not dare to state were I not protected by 



4 


the Statute of Limitations. The night after our 
little affair at Sporting Hill, as I lay upon the 
ground, about midnight, I was awakened by being 
shaken by the shoulder. I found standing over 
me an old friend, the captain of a company in a 
New York regiment that was brigaded with us 
and who had at one time been my Sunday School 
teacher. He cautioned me to be silent and to 
follow him. He led me a little distance away 
from the camp to a house that stood somewhat by 
itself and brought me to a cellar window, and 
then in a whisper he confided to me that he had 
been trying to get into that cellar, as he thought 
very likely there might be some hams there, but 
that finding himself too corpulent to pass through 
the window, he had bethought himself of my slen¬ 
der proportions, and he suggested that I climb 
into the cellar and pass out to him anything 
edible that I found therein. I blush to say that I 
yielded to this temptation, when placed before 
me by a man whom I had learned to regard as a 
guide in morality, and especially when backed by 
my own unappeased appetite after a fast of about 
twenty-four hours. I abstracted from that cellar 
two hams, which we conveyed to the camp and 
shared with a chosen few. 

I have always trusted that the Recording Angel, 
as he wrote down the story of this burglary, 
treated us as kindly as he did the renowned 
Uncle Toby, who swore a mighty oath at hearing 
of a widow’s distress. It is written that as the 
Recording Angel was forced to enter this sin upon 
dear old Uncle Toby’s debit balance in the great 
ledger that will be opened at Judgment Day, he 
dropped a tear and obliterated the record as he 
made it. May it be hoped that the half-starved 
citizen soldiers were treated with equal kindness 


5 


by the great Archangel, and that on the last day 
we will not find posted up against us the story 
of the stolen hams in Pennsylvania, in the cam¬ 
paign of the Twenty-second Regiment in 1863. 

It was intended that we should be used to cut 
off the retreat of Lee’s veterans as they moved 
south after the Battle of Gettysburg. We were 
pushed forward as rapidly as was possible, but 
we never succeeded in intercepting those veterans, 
although once we were only a few hours behind 
them, and General Robert E. Lee himself had 
been in a house which my company reached twen¬ 
ty-four hours after he had left it. Sometimes we 
would say to each other, what would happen to 
us if we chanced to catch up with those veterans. 
Heaven alone knows! And yet I cannot recall 
that any man evidenced the slightest fear of the 
consequences, that his intelligence must have 
told him would have happened to a body of not 
too thoroughly drilled, if very enthusiastic, Na¬ 
tional Guardsmen, had they encountered in their 
first serious musketry fight the trained and sea¬ 
soned troops of the Confederate Army. 

In every free country the citizen soldier must 
stand for the bulk of the military strength of the 
nation. It is from the mass of the citizens that 
in time of war the ranks of every army must be 
enlarged and filled up. Fortunate is that country 
which has a well-trained and well-disciplined force 
of citizens in reserve who are able to take their 
places in the ranks, not only with all the en¬ 
thusiasm that patriotism and love of country in¬ 
spires, but with the cool and intelligent courage 
that only comes with drill, with discipline and 
with knowledge of how to handle in a workman¬ 
like manner the tools of war. 

In France and Germany the practice of having 


6 


substantially all the young male citizens serve 
in the ranks for two or three years gives the na¬ 
tion great numbers of soldiers, who never cease to 
be citizens, and who in their term of military 
service never lose their hold upon the hopes and 
aspirations of life as citizens, and great numbers 
of citizens, who from their military training and 
experience are able to re-enter the ranks as ex¬ 
perienced and well-drilled men at arms. 

Our system of National Guards in the different 
states, by whatever name they may be called, de¬ 
pendent wholly upon voluntary enlistment and em¬ 
bracing but a very small proportion of our 
citizens available for military service, but feebly 
supplies the anticipatory needs of the nation. 

There is no incompatibility between an appre¬ 
ciation of the necessity of preparation for war 
and love of peace. The cause of enduring peace 
between nations is better served by the creation 
of a public opinion that will lead to mutual dis¬ 
armament, than by urging that a great and 
wealthy nation, the possessor of outlying posses¬ 
sions and boundless fertile acres that are the sub¬ 
ject of desire by other countries, should be left in 
such an unarmed and helpless condition that it 
necessarily would be despoiled by a quick attack 
from a nation of less natural resources, but 
possessed of a much greater trained military 
and naval force. Let us not delude ourselves with 
the idea that the millennium has arrived because 
our hearts are full of charity toward our neigh¬ 
bor and hopes of peaceful intercourse with him. 
The large man who is unarmed is at the mercy of 
the smallest foe with weapons. One might as 
well pit the muscles of the professional pugilist 
against the automatic pistol in the hands of a 


! | WAR DEPARTMENT, 


secweg 


secweg 


SEP" ^ 1913 j 



7 


dwarf, as a great and wealthy nation with no 
army or navy against a well-disciplined and 
powerful force in the hands of a comparatively 
small nation. It may be true that numbers and 
wealth would in time retrieve disaster and pre¬ 
vent anything more than a temporary success 
from the inferior nation. But consider the suffer¬ 
ing, the loss of life and the destruction of prop¬ 
erty that would be entailed before the end were 
reached. Nor should we lose sight of the great 
advantages to the youth of the country to be de¬ 
rived from a general military training. This is 
essentially a lawless country. There is not the 
deep-rooted respect for law in the abstract that 
should characterize a highly civilized people. A 
term of military service tends to curb the riotous 
self-will of thoughtless youth, to inculcate a re¬ 
spect for authority, to give the self-control that 
cannot be otherwise acquired than by discipline 
of some nature. The men of our country, we 
know, stand as ready to-day as in former times 
to give their substance and their lives in defence 
of the honor and the freedom of the nation. Those 
who are chosen as our rulers cannot be held free 
from censure, if they neglect to provide the meth¬ 
ods and the means by which those willing patriots 
may be rendered competent to perform their du¬ 
ties, and by which citizen soldiership may be 
brought to the high standard it has reached in 
other lands. Fortunately the first steps have 
been recently taken to bring about the desired 
results. In 1911, Major General Leonard Wood, 
Chief of Staff of the Army of the United States, 
in his report to the Secretary of War, made the 
following general statement relative to reserves: 




8 


“In view of the small size of the Regular 
Army and the small number of instructed 
militia, it is imperatively necessary that steps 
should be taken to organize a reserve com¬ 
posed of men who have served in the Regular 
Army, militia, or Marine Corps, from which 
the regular and, if possible, the militia or¬ 
ganizations can be promptly filled with in¬ 
structed men to war strength, and from which 
the losses of organizations can be made up 
during the first stages of a protracted war. 
* * * 

“The first steps taken should be those nec¬ 
essary to authorize a reserve and the enlist¬ 
ment therein of available men of suitable 
age, sound physiques, who have had honor¬ 
able service in the Army, Marine Corps, or 
Militia, and the modification of the present 
enlistment so as to provide three years with 
the colors and at least three in the reserve 
under the general conditions outlined. This 
is not only sound military policy but sound 
economy, as it insures a reasonable prepared¬ 
ness for war, interferes to the least extent 
with the civil and industrial pursuits of the 
individual; in fact, sends him back to civil 
life a more valuable industrial factor be¬ 
cause of his better physique, his improved 
mental and physical discipline, and with a 
greater respect for the flag, law and order, 
and his superiors. It is in accord with our 
institutions and ideals, in that it gives us the 
trained citizen soldier with the minimum of 
time taken from his industrial career.” 

During the present session of Congress, legis- 


9 


lation has been enacted providing for the estab- 
lishment of a reserve. 

General Wood says: 

“This legislation marks a very great ad¬ 
vance in our military policy—the greatest 
which has been made in years.” 

But this is not all. 

A circular has been issued from the office of the 
Chief of Staff, with this announcement: 

“1. The Secretary of War has decided to 
hold two experimental military camps of in¬ 
struction for students of educational institu¬ 
tions during the coming Summer vacation 
period. Should these camps prove a success, 
it is intended to hold them annually, one in 
each of the four sections of the country. 

“2. The object of these camps is, primarily, 
to increase the present inadequate personnel 
of the trained military reserve of the United 
States by a class of men from whom, in time 
of a national emergency, a large proportion 
of the commissioned officers will probably be 
drawn, and upon whose military judgment at 
such a time the lives of many other men will 
in a measure depend. 

“The object sought is not in any way one of 
military aggrandizement, but a means of meet¬ 
ing a vital need confronting a peaceful, un¬ 
military, though warlike nation to preserve 
that desired peace and prosperity by the best 
known precaution, viz.: a more thorough 
preparation and equipment to resist any 
effort to break such peace.” 

Students over seventeen years of age and physi- 


10 


cally qualified are invited, in the Eastern parts of 
the United States, to volunteer to go into camp at 
Gettysburg National Park, Pennsylvania, from 
July 7 to August 15tli. Those from the West 
will be provided for in a camp at the Presidio of 
Monterey, California, from July 1st to August 
8th. The instruction will be primarily adapted to 
train these young men to become officers. 

It remains for the members of our National 
Guard and of the Grand Army of the Republic 
to do their part, and see to it that their sons 
and grandsons take advantage of the opportunities 
now afforded by the Government to obtain ade¬ 
quate military instruction and to serve the colors, 
first in the camps of instruction, then in the 
ranks of the National Guards and militia, and then 
in the reserves. Peace calls for the sacrifices of 
patriotism as well as war. It is comparatively 
easier to enlist and march away to the strains 
of martial music and the plaudits of admiring 
crowds in time of actual war, than to drill and 
plod as matter of preparation in time of peace. 
But, “those also serve who stand and wait/’ and 
in his day and generation, the National Guards¬ 
man, the representative of citizen soldiership, gives 
all that is asked of him, if he devotes to the service 
of his country sufficient hours snatched from his 
youthful pleasures, to qualify himself for sterner 
duties, when war’s horrid shape stalks through 
our land. 



WAR DEPARTjvissff 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


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